Hi. I'm a painter, a writer and a mother of three teenage sons, one with a severe disability. This is a journal: riotously disorganized, full of art, food, children and everyday domestic events. Unless you are a friend or family member you may not be interested, but you are welcome to look. Artists who are parents may find some
common ground here, as well as parents of children with special needs. For art only, see my site: nancybeamiller.blogspot.com

Saturday, January 31

HENRY WAS HERElast weekend and becoming distracted by a ringing phone or a buzzing timer I allowed him to do his chore (putting away the clean cutlery) without supervision. Here is the result of that! He'd slammed the door shut and put the cutlery basket back into the dishwasher and skedaddled before I came to inspect! How can someone be so clued in to the ramifications of his actions (Mom will be angry that I did not do the chore right so I better get out of here) yet so profoundly not care (Nonetheless I cannot be bothered to do the chore right unless she is standing over me) at the same time!?! Welcome to Autism, Henry-style.

Well, the chore-avoidant boy just landed himself on a new book cover recently, and here it is:You can find out more about the book here. I took this shot a couple of years ago on our front porch (the light is superb for portraits there) during a fit of happy giggles. Nobody can laugh like Henry does...he laughs with his whole being!

Sunday, January 18

FORTUNE COOKIE WISDOMThe time is right to make new friends...I nearly choked on my edamame when I read my fortune the other night. I had just been chatting to my friend Roz about Facebook, which I very recently joined. Facebook is sort of like an epidemic that hit my "village" and before you knew it we were all infected. I'd ignored numerous request from real life friends to join, but finally the sheer weight of emails inviting me to join broke my resistance, and I signed on to give it a try. My first impression is that it's sort of like entering a carnival fun house: hugely amusing but a little disorienting too. But obviously even the fortune cookie gods are now weighing in so...

Wednesday, January 7

Goodbye sweet DaisyI had to put Daisy down today. What a hard thing. She was about 17 give or take a few months. We had to guess as we adopted her as a grown cat. The Vet estimated she was about a year and a half when we adopted her in April of 1993. Paul and I had her before the human babies started coming...she was our "pre-child" in a way.

And what a wonderful cat she was...sweet-natured and affectionate. Even people who were not cat fans liked Daisy...we heard it all the time "Well, I don't usually like cats but if I could get one like her...!"She was so gentle that she never scratched anybody or even the sofa, ever. Just her scratching board (which she preferred sprinkled with a little catnip.) She had dense incredibly silky "bunny fur" and beautiful gold-green eyes. She loved being petted and brushed. Turkey and ham were her favorite treats.

A funny thing about Daisy is that she was an indoors cat by choice. When we first adopted her we lived in the city and she never showed the slightest inclination to go outside, which we were happy about as we lived on a busy street. But when we moved to this quiet tree-lined neighborhood we decided that she could go out if she wanted...only she didn't want! We tried once or twice and she'd flatten herself to the ground, eyes huge, whiskers twitching, looking for the first opportunity to dart back inside. She was a contented little hothouse flower.

Saturday, January 3

CHEF SONWhat a watershed event! My recently-turned-12-son H suggested that he cook dinner last night, and then he went ahead and did it. No prompting! The menu was hamburgers, gravy, pasta and spinach. Paul and I were simply floored!

Not only that but H did an excellent job: the meat was tender, the pasta at perfect tooth, and the spinach correctly drained and tossed with a little butter. The whole family went back for seconds and gave him the ultimate compliment: no leftovers!

November

by Elsa Beskow

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The photographs on this site were taken with either a Canon EOS T3i, a Nikon D-70, an iPhone, or a Canon Powershot SD1000. For photo reproduction/purchase inquiries please contact me at nb (at) genrecookshop (dot) com